On August 21, I had the opportunity to address the Board briefly about the changes that have taken place in our Department in recent months. During that time, I discussed the benefits of teacher coaching, and the priorities we hoped to address in working with teachers throughout our District.

I'm so grateful to our District Administration and Board of Education for the support they've given to our Department and teachers through the years! We have a very strong technology program in our District, and I know our teachers are thankful for the help that they regularly receive.

Last week, teachers in our technology endorsement class learned various tools and applications and how to create digital stories in our Digital Storytelling class. The first day of class, groups created a movie using pipe cleaners as their medium and the tools used for creating their movie was their iPad's camera to take still shots, their iPads, and the iMovie app. The teachers created their movies in the iMovie app where they added music and titles to their video. I have linked two movies that were created during the class. I was amazed how much these teachers learned in a week. They took what they learned and created amazing and touching digital storytelling movies about themselves.

This summer at the ISTE (International Society for Technology in Education) conference, I attended a three-hour workshop focused on activating students of the "high-tech/couch potato generation." I think a lot of parents and teachers worry about our tech-savvy students doing nothing but sitting and staring at their computers or other electronic devices all day rather than getting up, getting active, and getting involved. This workshop proved to me that using technology does not mean merely sitting. Teachers can and should plan technology-enhanced lessons that get students more active, more involved, more excited about learning, and more in touch with the world.

VARK (Visual, Auditory, Reading Kinesthetic) and Video - Mix ModalitiesActive Senses + Content with Context + Relevant TechnologyIn any technology-enhanced lesson, teachers can give their students a variety of learning experiences, including kinesthetic experiences. The combination of visual, auditory, reading, and kinesthetic learning experiences increases the number of exposures students have to content and allows them to process and repeat it in a variety of ways. For example, when choosing to show a video to introduce new content, a teacher can do more than just have students watch the video. Students can view the video, then re-view the video with specific questions or ideas to focus on, then get up and try what was taught or demonstrated in the video. Try having students use video along with manipulatives and off-computer activities that allow them to demonstrate their understanding. Have students participate in active thinking assignments before, during, and after viewing a video clip to make what they are learning from the clip more relevant, and more clear.

There are a many great websites that provide free online videos that are perfect for instructing and activating students. Here are a few you might like to check out:

Physical & Virtual Experiences"Computers are no long just screens and keyboards." Computers are interactive devices now, and they can be used to access information in a variety of ways that activate students. Following are some examples of ways your students can use technology to learn and activate their senses:

Auditory: In the Google Chrome browser, students can use the microphone available on google.com to conduct searches by speaking their search term instead of typing it.

Activity Idea - Assign each student to research something specific about an animal (what it eats, its habitat, etc.) by speaking their search into the google microphone, then have them verbally share what they have learned with a small group.

Visual: In the Google Chrome browser, students can click and drag a photo into the search box on images.google.com.

Activity Idea - Give each student an item (ie. money from another country) and have them find out what it is or gather information about it. This would be a great attention-getter that would give students background information before reading a novel, conducting and experiment, or learning about a historical event.

Verbal: The Rubber Duck Decoding Theory - Why do we always get better ideas when we're in the shower or the bath or driving in the car? Sometimes we need to get out of the same old scenario where we sit at the computer and stare at the screen while we try to think. Instead of staring at the screen, when students have a problem to solve or thinking that needs to happen, have them talk to a rubber duck. Have them tell the duck the problem or get up and walk around and talk to the duck about possible solutions. Getting out of that same old staring at the screen scenario can help students think more clearly. Verbally explaining the problem and possible solutions or sharing knowledge already gained can help new ideas flow.

Activity Idea - Have students create a video or picture explanation using a rubber duck as the teacher. Have them record themselves using the duck to explain or themselves teaching the duck.

Physical & Virtual ConnectionsAnother way to connect students' technology use to active engagement is to help them make connections between the virtual world and the real world. One way to help them make these connections is by using creative work examples found online and created by others for inspiration, then having students create their own product. Following are some ideas of how online examples can be used as inspiration for student creations:

Place: Learn about a place you have only seen in a movie by researching it on the web.

Place: Introduce students to online maps like Google street view, Google map-making, and Google trail views. Talk about how the maps were made and how they are useful. Then, have students make their own!

Exhibit: Build a physical exhibit (wax museum, diorama, display board) with a recorded narration to go with it. Use sites like Voki, Vocaroo, or Blabberize to create the narration. Link the recorded narration using a QR code that can be displayed next to the physical exhibit.

Exhibit: Use QR code to take a physical exhibit beyond the physical display. Have students create a list of questions to include with their display. Have them create a website that houses the answers to the questions. Generate a QR code to display next to the questions that directs peers to the weblink where they can find the information they need to answer the questions.

Video: Have students view online videos, music videos, instructional videos, etc, then have them create their own video projects.

How can these types of activities really benefit students and increase learning? Technology-enhanced, multimedia learning projects that connect the physical and virtual worlds can provide opportunities for students to entertain, emote, inform, instruct, challenge, engage, provoke, and persuade. Following is a list of each of these skills, ideas for teaching these skills, and learning goals achieved when students practice these skills:

Technology & Tactile Learning"Our young people risk losing an essential connection with physical reality." - Thomas ElpelTeachers can help stop students' disconnect with physical reality by providing a balance between hands-on, tactile experiences and technology-enhanced experiences. Practical, tactile experiences are important for learning and life. Technology can aid teachers and students in the creation of practical, tactile experiences and help make these experiences more rich. For example:

Paper-based activities: Students get so used to technology that sometimes doing a paper-based creative project is novel and exciting to them.

Activity Idea - Go to Dear Photo.com and check out their project. Have your students generate their own Dear Photo project and write a description of their work.

Use technology to create a physical product: Use the two worlds together. Technology can enhance our activities as we add the tactile back into what we do.

Activity Idea - Create a "Fortune Teller" or a Cube as a review for a unit. Use a template on the computer to create the fortune teller, or assign students to figure out how to format it in a blank document themselves.

Dynamic Paper: Use technology to create graph paper, number lines, tessellations, spinners, and other paper-based activities.

Generate, Motivate, Innovate, ActivateGenerate - When students use technology to "create a tactile story," it can help them explore stories, relationships, and patterns. Following are some resources that can help students generate more tangible experiences and products using virtual tools:

Motivate - Getting students' attention and helping them see relevance in learning experiences can motivate them to learn more. Technology tools can help increase curiosity in students and add stimulation and variety to their learning through the use of humor, novelty, and a "sense of the unexpected." They can also help students find their niche (explore their own personal interests), see value in their work, and make connections to the real world. Following are some ideas for motivating students by creating novelty in the classroom and by connecting the virtual world with the real world:

Novelty: Create a special day, and use these special days/events to create technology projects that tie into the required curriculum and the real world. (Constitution Day, Pi Day, Ones Upon a Day)

Innovate -"The key to student engagement is involving students in transforming information into something new..." Teachers can use technology to help students think in new and different ways. Students need to be moved beyond copy and paste to create their own innovative projects and problem solutions. Teachers can help students become more comfortable moving "between on-computer and off-computer activities to help students with transformation."

Lego is a great example of using technology to create inventive on- and off-computer projects. Check out their site for activities, ideas, and information about Lego Digital Designer and Lego competitions.

Activate - Games, online and off, are a great way to help students learn. In order to be effective educational tools, games should include four elements. When you create a game, and any lesson, be sure to GRAF it.

Goal. You need a way to win or achieve the goal.As educators we need to match goals with purposes and reasons for learning.

Rules. You need to know what you may and may not do.As educators, we need to provide guidelines for learning.

Action and Attitude. You must do something along the way. Make it fun and interesting.As educators we need to make leanring meaningful and challenging.

Feedback. You need to know how you are doing.As educators, we need to provide ongoing opportunities to self, peer, and teacher assessment.

Thanks to Annette Lamb for her great ideas and for reinforcing for me that technology tools are all about activation and creation. For more ideas, check out Annette's Engagement Emergencies Website! http://eduscapes.com/sessions/emergency/index.htm

This year at the ISTE conference I went to a few classes that concentrated on The Flipped Classroom model. This is a model I had heard about, but never really understood what it really was. To be honest, I am still trying to figure it all out. It is an interesting idea, and one that I wonder if I should start using or at least try. The flipped classroom is a “reversed teaching model that delivers instruction at home through interactive, teacher-created videos and moves “homework” to the classroom.” ("Flipped Classroom." TechSmith - Screen Capture and Recording Software . N.p., n.d. Web. 1 Aug. 2012. http://www.techsmith.com/flipped-classroom.html)It’s a way to use video as an instructional tool outside and inside the classroom. Teachers can use the video as a launching point to get to higher thinking. Students can even use the videos to help them catch up on concepts they don’t understand, or they can use the videos to move ahead. It can allow students to move at their own pace. Flipping the classroom can be a way to make learning come alive for students. It can be a way for students to start controlling their learning.Flipping the classroom seems to be a lot of extra work for teachers. However, teachers who have applied this model in their classrooms have seen questions from outside the classroom start to come into the classroom. They have provided videos as a way of front loading. For example, the video will explain how to use certain tools that will be used in the classroom. This eliminates the need to spend time in class covering how to use the tools. Some teachers at the ISTE conference who are currently flipping their classrooms admitted that there is extra work on their part, but they can reuse the videos from year to year. This video will show you how Aaron Sams, a science teacher at Woodland Park High School, uses the Flipped Classroom model.

So, is this an instructional model we can apply in our district? Many teachers have voiced concerns about trying to fit the new math and reading programs (Pearson SuccessNet and Reading Street) into their classrooms. Could they use the instructional videos found on those sites as a way to flip their classrooms?